Rabindranath Tagore
described the Taj Mahal as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of
eternity’, Rudyard Kipling as ‘the embodiment
of all things pure’, while its creator,
Emperor Shah Jahan, said it made ‘the sun
and the moon shed tears from their eyes’. Every year, tourists numbering more than
twice the population of Agra pass through
its gates to catch a once-in-a-lifetime
glimpse of what is widely considered the
most beautiful building in the world. Few
leave disappointed.

The Taj was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial
for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal,
who died giving birth to their 14th child in
1631. The death of Mumtaz left the emperor
so heartbroken that his hair is said to have
turned grey virtually overnight. Construction
of the Taj Mahal began the following year
and, although the main building is thought
to have been built in eight years, the whole
complex was not completed until 1653. Not
long after it was fi nished Shah Jahan was
overthrown by his son Aurangzeb and imprisoned
in Agra Fort where, for the rest of
his days, he could only gaze out at his creation
through a window. Following his death
in 1666, Shah Jahan was buried here alongside
Mumtaz.
In total, some 20,000 people from India
and Central Asia worked on the building.
Specialists were brought in from as far away
as Europe to produce the exquisite marble
screens and pietra dura (marble inlay work)
made with thousands of semiprecious stones.

The Taj was designated a World Heritage
Site in 1983 and looks as immaculate today as when it was first constructed – though
it underwent a huge restoration project in
the early 20th century. In 2002, having been
gradually discoloured by city pollution, it
was spruced up with an ancient face-pack
recipe known as multani mitti – a blend of
soil, cereal, milk and lime once used by Indian
women to beautify their skin. Now only
nonpolluting vehicles are allowed within a
couple of hundred metres of the building.